NBA’s first active billionaire player 37-year-old LeBron James questioned in an episode of “The Shop” whether the U.S. government has done enough to get 31-year-old NBA star Britney Griner out of a Russian jail. LeBron filmed the episode over a month ago when there was nothing in the news about 79-year-old President Joe Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken doing anything substantial to execute necessary prisoner swap or whatever to get Griner out of a Moscow jail. Griner was arrested Feb. 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for cannabis possession, contained in vape-cartridges with hash-oil found in her luggage. Britney, on the advice of her Russian attorney, pled guilty July 7 to a Moscow judge, putting facts of her case not in dispute. Griner said she had no intent of breaking Russian law on her way to play for Russian UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team.
Britney’s cannabis possession incident could not have come at a worse time considering the state of war between the United States and Russian Federation. LeBron James, making his statement a month ago on “The Shop,” irked folks thinking, at least now, the Biden White House was doing everything possible to get Britney out of Russia. ”She’s been there over 110 days. Now how can she feel like America has her back? I would be feeling like, do I even want to go back to America,” James said, talking it up in his barber-shop-format talk show. James had to walk his comments back from widespread criticism questioning his patriotism. What’s clear from the “The Shop” episode, it happened over a month ago, since Britney has been incarcerated 144 days today. Criticism heaped on James was misplaced, since at the time he filmed the episode, little had been done for Griner.
Griner’s situation could not be worse by the Biden White House, currently prosecuting a five-month-old proxy war, using Ukrainian troops and U.S. weapons to topple the Russian Federation. White House officials only recently contracted with 74-year-old former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.N. ambassador and Bill Clinton Energy Secretary, whose think tank “The Richardson Center” specializes in hostage negotiation. Whether or not Richardson can do anything to get Griner out remains unknown. James, at the time of taped “The Shop“ had no idea about all the efforts underway to get Griner out of a Moscow jail. But what James and other don’t get is no matter what the efforts the White House, they only have so much clout with 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin and the Kremlin know that Biden seeks to topple his government.
All the criticism on LeBron James makes good headlines and segments for sports talk shows but it’s entirely misplaced. Anger should go to President Biden for going the war against the Russian Federation, at a time when the U.S. needs all the friends, including enemies, it can get. If Biden and Blinken preserved some measure of diplomacy between the U.S. and Moscow, getting Griner out of a Moscow jail would be a whole lot easier. Russian Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said today that Russian authorities are fully aware of the Pentagon providing training in Ukraine on HIMARS, long-range missile systems, designed to change the battlefield. So when it comes to getting Britney Griner out of a Russian jail, it’s going to come with a high price tag because of Biden’s abysmal relations with Putin. Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin should not remain Russian president.
James would have no way of knowing the wretched state of diplomatic affairs between the U.S. and Russia. U.S.-Russian relations are worse than U.S. relations with Iran, where there are no diplomatic relations at all since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. What’s worse about U.S.-Russian relations is the fact that Biden started a proxy war using Ukrainian troops against the Russian Federation. Biden said he would not commit U.S. boots-on-the-ground oin Ukraine to avoid WW III. So instead of giving Ukraine the help it needed, Biden has given Ukraine a black check to fund its bankrupt government and the war with the Kremlin. Zakharova said today the Kremlin is well-aware of the U.S. supplying-and-training Ukrainian fighters in advanced long-range missile systems. All of this back-story doesn’t bode well for Britney’s release without Biden paying a king’s ransom to get her out.
All the misguided criticism of LeBron James stems from pure envy by the sports media, who, for the most part, earn a meager living, looking at LeBron the same way folks look at billionaires like Elon Musk. How many in the U.S. press, another meager profession, shows any support for Musk, who, single-handedly, created the electric care revolution around the planet. What hypocrisy from the media that finds nothing good to say about Musk, whose SpaceX rocket company put U.S. astronauts back in space after NASA’s Space Shuttle retired because of old age in 2011. Now the media wants to slam Musk for his Twitter purchase or any objections he has about the deal. James should know that the sports media is filled with have-nots, jealous athletes like James that have become so accomplished. When it comes to Britney Girner, ask Biden why he’s at war with the Russian Federation?
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
